Senate Armed Services OKs Space Force with conditions
by Sandra Erwin — May 23, 2019
The SASC bill seeks to minimize cost and ease the growing pains of establishing a new service by making the commander of Air Force Space Command also the commander of the U.S. Space Force.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s effort to create a new military service for space cleared a critical hurdle as the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 22 voted to approve the establishment of the U.S. Space Force in its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.
The committee voted 25-2 to advance the legislation to the Senate floor, possibly the week of June 10. A summary of the markup was released on Thursday.
The SASC vote to authorize a Space Force is not surprising from a Republican-controlled Senate. But it was not seen as guaranteed given the skepticism voiced by committee members during a hearing April 11 with Pentagon officials. Several senators questioned the rationale and cost of standing up a new military bureaucracy to handle functions that the Air Force already does.
https://spacenews.com/senate-armed-services-oks-space-force-with-conditions/
